Just As He Was Due To Walk Free, Her Father Died In Prison

Kambri Crews’ dad was paroled on June 11, diagnosed with cancer on July 5 and died five days later, still in Texas Department of Criminal Justice custody.

By Kristen CabreraJuly 21, 2020 10:41 am,

Kambri Crews had to endure a lot growing up. She was the only hearing person in a deaf family and domestic violence was an issue, too. In 2002, her dad was sentenced to 20 years for an attack on another woman.

Eventually, Theodore Cigo Crews owned up to what he’d done and he and his daughter were able to talk about everything under the sun. Kambri Crews took a different view of her dad after that, and wrote about her chaotic childhood in a moving and powerful book “Burn Down The Ground: A Memoir.”

On June 11, her father was paroled. He was still in Texas Department of Criminal Justice custody on July 5 when Crews got a call telling her that her dad had been diagnosed with lung cancer. And five days later on July 10 he died.

“I spent a few days of despondent wailing grief and disbelief and now I’ve got a fire lit under me. I’m mad. And I’m gonna turn that anger into some action I hope,” Crews said.

She cites years of bureaucratic apathy and outright neglect of her family and other families by the Texas criminal justice system as the source of her anger.

She had obtained clothes, dishes and other household items, all stored in a box, ready for her father’s homecoming. But that day never came.

What you’ll hear in this segment:

– How Crews’ father addressed his violent past

– How Crews learned to grieve her father

– What her father dealt with while in prison

– How many other inmates she says are being treated the same way

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